127 of 197 polling stations have been counted so far; election marred by low voter turnout; Mofaz confident in victory, says he has planned out first hundred days as Kadima chairman.

MK Shaul Mofaz, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,
was ahead of incumbent Tzipi Livni in Tuesday’s Kadima leadership race to become
the party’s fourth leader, according to preliminary results.

By press
time, votes at 127 of the 197 polling stations had been counted. Mofaz won 64 of
them and Livni 37.

Former prime minister Ariel Sharon split the Likud and
established Kadima in November 2005. Former prime minister Ehud Olmert replaced
Sharon following his strokes and Livni took over after Olmert was forced to quit
the post due to allegations of corruption.

Mofaz was expected to come to
Kadima’s headquarters in Petah Tikva to deliver a victory speech after press
time. His associates said that in the speech, he would call for unity in the
party and try to persuade Livni to remain in Kadima.

“The day after [my
victory], I will already start efforts to form Israel’s next government,” Mofaz
told supporters in Beersheba on a tour of southern polling stations Tuesday
afternoon. “I have already formed a team to work on my first hundred days [as
Kadima chairman].”

Sources close to Mofaz said they spoke to all 12 MKs
who supported Livni in the race in recent days and they all said they would
remain in the party under Mofaz’s leadership.

Livni might have hinted
about her future when she told reporters at her campaign headquarters in Tel
Aviv on Tuesday morning that she “doesn’t believe in opposition inside parties”
and that she formed Kadima and believes in its future.

When she was asked
by Army Radio whether she would stay in the party if she lost, she said, “I am
sick of that question.

I don’t think the public cares what happens to me
personally if I don’t win. It’s a subject that only the press cares
about.”

The election was marred by a low turnout. Only a little more than
40 percent of the party’s 95,000 members came out to vote on the rainy day. By
contrast, in the first round of voting in September’s Labor leadership race, the
turnout was 67%.

Throughout the day, both sides complained about
wrongdoing and political tricks.

Mofaz’s campaign said there were ballots
for MK Avi Dichter in several polling stations even though he quit the
race.

Mofaz complained about a Beit Jann polling station in a building
owned by a Livni supporter with a Livni campaign office meters
away.

Sources close to Livni complained that Likud activists were
interfering in the race on Mofaz’s behalf.

The first complaints over the
election procedure were lodged just minutes after polls opened.

The head
of Kadima’s Central Elections Committee, judge Edna Beckenstein, filed a police
complaint against Mofaz’s camp over mass SMS and phone campaigns that appeared
intended to deceive voters, a Kadima statement said.

The message, sent
Tuesday at 1 a.m. by the Mofaz camp to Livni supporters, invited them to vote a
day after after the primary, saying, “Reminder: On Wednesday, March 28, we
arrive at the polls, vote and win with Tzipi Livni.”

Beckenstein called
the incident “an act that is meant to deceitfully alter the elections” and
called on police to immediately open an investigation.

Later in the day,
Livni accused Mofaz of initiating a telephone campaign supplying false
information to Livni supporters.

According to a statement released by her
office, voters in the ongoing Kadima election received phone calls from people
identifying themselves as Livni supporters and telling them that they have until
11:30 p.m. to vote – ballots actually closed at 10 p.m. – and that they could do
so at polling stations that were not their own.

Livni’s campaign also
complained that posters and signs supporting Livni outside a polling station in
Tiberias were torn down overnight between Monday and Tuesday. Livni’s office
registered official complaints with authorities overseeing the voting process
and with the Israel Police over the incidents.

“We call on the Mofaz
campaign to instruct their activists to refrain from any dirty tricks and acts
of violence,” a spokesman for the Livni campaign said.

Olmert said at the
J Street Conference in Washington that he believes the winner of this contest
could be the next prime minister.

Sites Of Interest

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